France, Monaco, and Elliot Finkel.

Last night we had Elliot Finkel as a guest entertainer - now THAT is a show.  Elliot is one of the few really talented and amazing acts out there.  There are very few shows that sweep me up along with them and entertain me even while I am working - and his is one of them.  The best moments of the show are those where he improvises onstage - he just KILLS it every time and always plays something new.  (Killing is a good thing when you're improvising).  Plus he has such a big personality its easy to get caught up into his charisma.  He always smiles and his face is so expressive - he seems to be so genuinely into what he's doing.  He performs one song with a huge cuban cigar in his mouth to add to the theme of the song - what the audience doesn't know is that if he could he'd have that cigar in his mouth for the whole show - which he DOES during our rehearsals.  No other guest entertainer would show up at rehearsal with a handwritten chart and say "I wrote this yesterday - lets debut it tonight and see if it works" and of course its awesome.  I feel like a musician when I play his show, and I forget that I'm working.  

The last couple days I've taken some really neat excursions.  In Marseilles I took a tour to Aix-En-Provence - it was an "on your own" tour which basically I got a free ride there and had the day to myself and then got a free ride back.  Awesome.  I walked around for hours, and really loved the town.  I explored the churches and narrow streets full of vendors since it was Saturday - Market day all through the streets.  I made the trek up to visit the residence of the painter Cezanne - who was born there.  I had no euros at that point but it just happened to be a free entrance day - woohoo!  The main street is very wide and so full of people and life - they seem to be gearing up for some sort of festival, and I saw a couple of bands playing and a booth where people danced in the street to swing and rock music to advertise dance classes.  There were skaters and bikers doing tricks on makeshift ramps.  It was just so alive.  From some street vendors I bought myself a couple of tiny jars of locally made jam (one is rose flavored??) and an antique book: a copy of Shakespeare's Macbeth published in Paris a hundred years ago.  The text is original shakespearian but the footnotes are French - how fun is that??  

Yesterday I went on a tour to Monaco and Monte Carlo, which was really exciting for me.  Growing up we had a nextdoor neighbor who was from Monaco (the second smallest country in the world) who was an ice skater.  I found out only 5,000 people are actually Monaco citizens with  Monaco passports, and that the name of the country comes from the Italian word for monk - because the country was begun by two Italian pirates who disguised themselves as monks and then invaded.  We visited the royal palace where the King lives, and saw the flag flying which means he was in residence.  We visited the main Cathedral and saw the tomb of the last prince and his wife, Grace Kelley - originally from Philadelphia!  Unfortunately it was pouring rain for the first part of the tour, and I was getting so wet and tired of water on my glasses that I bought myself one of those cheesy souvenir hats they sell everywhere - it says Monaco and Monte Carlo on it.  But it fits well and I guess I needed a hat anyway. From there we visited the famous casino of Monte Carlo - and even though we didn't go inside it was one of those places where you can just feel and imagine the sort of high society that mingles there at night - all the glitz and glamour.  It was quite a beautiful place, as well, with the Cafe de Paris, the Hotel de Paris, and the gardens and fountains everywhere.  And all day I had in my head a song that I know by Rockapella that mentions Monte Carlo ("Monte Carlo, Tokyo, anywhere you want lets go - first class - just ask - we'll leave right now")  

Today we're in Livorno and unfortunately I couldn't get on any tours that I wanted, so I'm having a lazy day here on board, enjoying the quiet.